My thoughts on the 9th Anniversary of 9/11.

On the 9th anniversary my thoughts are with all the following groups of people:

1) Those people (tourists, business people&workers) who were in the Word Trade Center and lost their lives that day because of th acts of deranged men.

2) Every single person, whether law enforcement, fire crew, paramedic or citizen, who lost their life that day trying to help someone else whilst chaos ensued around them.

3) All the people who, though they survived that day, had their lives changed forever. Those people who lost someone or were hurt (physically or mentally) that day, those people who have carried their first hand experience of what happened that day with them since and who will continue to do so for the rest of their life.

4) Everyone who's life has been changed directly because of that day. Amongst these people is every soldier that has lost their life fighting in the conflicts that have come about as a result of that day.

This final group contains every single one of us. The ripple effect of that day has been felt by everyone across the world in one way or another. The governmental policies that play on the fear inspired by that day have effected us all and will continue to do so.

I have no political axe to grind here nor religious dogma to preach.

I simple want to pay my respects to all effected that day.

When life gives you lemons.....

Life's given me a lot to muse over since the start of the year. I won't go into too much detail but between the drastic changes in my family's domestic life and the emotional upheaval that came with it and the changes I have seen in the lives of my friends has made me realize a few things.

There is no plan.

This whole idea of there being some great big master plan to all "this" is a myth. Things happen because they do - cause and effect. The universe began and the ball keeps rolling from there on.

We are not defined by what happens to us.

We are not defined by what happens to us. We are defined by how we deal with what happens to us. How we react and deal with an event in our lives, even the smallest of things, is the important thing. By looking at life from this point of view you can make the best of even the worst situation (although this can take some time - distance and perspective also have a big part to play).

Things do sometimes work out for the best.

On occasion, when the things you "wanted" to happen don't and you have to "settle" for something else, things can work out better than you expected. The trick appears to me to let fate take you were it will.

Family is not defined by blood.

Whilst it is true that blood is thicker than water, the last few months have taught me that blood ties can often mean less than those that are formed through friendship. From my point of view, there are people that I consider to be in my "family" that are not blood relations to me and there are also those who are blood relations of me that I do not consider part of my "family". I suppose really in place of family I should use Clan but as we are geographically separated Clan doesn't always feel like it fits to me.

Growing old sucks.

Now I don't write this from the point of view of someone who is old (I'm only in my 30's) but from the point of view of someone who has watched people who I care about, and who cared about me, grow old (I'm talking 70's, 80's old here) and be ravaged by life, have their spirit drained and left without any of the things that they cherished and work damn hard to hold dear. I'm all for living a long time and experiencing life for all it is but there comes a point where life turns around and well and truly bites you.

So then there's a few of my conclusions from one of the most eventful 3 months of my life.....

Rock on people.

\m/